Ann Plato Quotes
A good education is that which prepares us for our future sphere of action and makes us contented with that situation in life in which God, in his infinite mercy, has seen fit to place us, to be perfectly resigned to our lot in life, whatever it may be.
Ann Plato, 1820-?, Writer, Poet & Educator, First Black American Essayist, Plato’s Essays
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Ann Plato (c. 1824 – unknown) was a 19th-century Black (African American and Native American) educator and author. She was the second woman of color to publish a book in America and the first to publish a book of essays and poems. As a young Black girl writing in the 19th century, Plato has been described as an heir to Phillis Wheatley, who wrote her first published poem at the age of 13 in 1766. There is not much biographical information on Plato, and most of her life is known from her only published work, Essays, which included the preface written by Reverend James W. C. Pennington, an abolitionist leader in Hartford, Connecticut, and a pastor.
